16 April 2015

Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day, is observed as Israel's day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews and five million others who perished in the Holocaust as a result of the actions carried out by Nazi Germany and its accessories, and for the Jewish resistance in that period.The Germans and their collaborators killed as many as 1.5 million children, including over a million Jewish children and tens of thousands of Romani children, German children with physical and mental disabilities living in institutions, Polish children, and children residing in the occupied Soviet Union.Like many I remind myself how little the world has learned from this tragic period!I like to remember those little ones, those innocents whose lives were snuffed like mere candles extinguished simply because their physical aspect, family origins and/or faith were different...I only have to listen to the news to know we have much to learn from the present and the past if we are ever to have a future!

02 April 2015

Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper when Jesus shared the Passover meal with his disciples. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples prior to the celebration. By performing this lowly act of service, the Bible says in John 13:1 that Jesus "showed them the full extent of his love.By His example, Jesus demonstrated how Christians are to love one another through humble service.During the Passover meal, Jesus took bread and wine and asked His Father to bless it. He broke the bread into pieces, giving it to His disciples and said, "This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Then he took the cup of wine, shared it with his disciples and said, "This wine is the token of God's new covenant to save you with the blood I will pour out for you." These events recorded in Luke 22:19-20 describes the Last Supper, the biblical basis for the practice of Holy Communion.

In the United Kingdom H.M. Elizabeth II takes part in the Ceremony of the Royal Maundy, which dates back to Edward 1. This involves the distribution of Maundy Money to deserving senior citizens (one man and one woman for each year of the sovereign's age), usually chosen for having done service to their community. They receive ceremonial red and white purses which contain coins made especially for the occasion. The white purse contains one coin for each year of the monarch's reign. The red purse contains money in place of other gifts that used to be given to the poor.

01 April 2015

(Photo source Kristy Wiggleworth/AP Photo)A beautiful photo, a child's innocence, the whole world in front of her...One thing though...Not everything is as it seems...It appears this butterfly is facing us, the child is just behind (a glass plate?Both photos are superimposed?) and it is therefore unlikely the butterfly landed on her nose...Still, both are God's work! To believe like a small child again...